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I'll be at the Tigers game again tonight, been to both so far in St. Pete. Crazy that when I lived in Michigan I had to drive 3 hours to catch a game and now that I'm in Florida, between Spring Training and the Trop I can see them so much easier than when in Michigan. One interesting tidbit from yesterday: I went to get nachos and the concession lady told me that there were more Detroit fans at the games than Rays fans, pretty impressive. My section was about 70% Tigers fans. Detroit travels well.

It's like that for every opponent here. It's pretty sad, actually. I went to a Reds/Rays game earlier this year and there was a ton of red at the trop. I didn't go to the game tonight, but from what I could see on tv, the turnout was pitiful for the Rays.

The Rays are a very likeable team and I follow them a little bit since I'm down here. The damn stadium is in the wrong location. That, and it's awful. Probably the worst venue I've ever been to, college or pro.

It's like that for all Detroit sports teams down here. I went to game one and it was a majority Tigers fans. The Red Wings game last season was probably 70-30 Wings fans. Hell, even the Lions may have been about 55-45 last season.

Makes sense considering hardly anyone I meet here is from FL, maybe 5%. The Red Wings are the biggest brand is hockey and travel well everywhere, and the Lightning have no presence here whatsoever. I go months between seeing someone rocking Lightning apparel, so the Wings game is no surprise either. The Lions do surprise me though, I have to say, because if there is one team around the area that locals pull for and I see a lot of apparel for is the Bucs. I have a Lions background on my cell and take hell for it pretty much daily.

It may have been a down season for bucs fans because even Steelers fans couldn't fill Raymond James and that was early in the season. A lot of fans were pretty angry that the Lions even had a presence that game. When they won it sounded like they were the home team. Megatron chants and everything.

I can understand the arguments about too many transplants, bad stadium, and all, but still, it amazes me that a franchise that won division titles in 2008 and 2010 (and the AL pennant in '08) has such horrible support. Usually even transplant-dominated cities turn out when the local team is good.

With Michigan's economy being what its been there are tons of transplanted Michiganders around the country. My friend went out to all 3 games in Baltimore and he said the crowd was 60/40 Tigers fans for each game.

at Cleveland's remaining schedule. They have as many double-headers remaining still (not including yesterday) as they have days off. They are going to be one exhausted team. Not to mention they are already really injured.

I wonder how many times we can FIRE LEYLAND and FIRE DUMBROWSKI tonight?

I'm all for sarcastically calling the extremists out, but can we go through one game thread without referring to them? It's just flamebait that will get someone to say something stupid instead of having level-headed conversations.

Does anybody know the correct pronunciation for Alex Avila's last name? The TV announcers I've heard, and most people I've heard say his name, have all pronounced it uh-VEE-luh. I've also heard AH-vee-lah. But, since there is no tick (or whatever that character is called) over that first A, according to the rules of the Spanish language, doesn't the emphasis get placed on the second-to-last syllable? That would make it ah-VEE-lah. What do the rest of you think?

improved at run scoring. They already had a lot of pitching, so they were able to part with Fister to get Casper Wells plus prospects. Along with Wells (wRC+ 173 in Seattle), they called up their top prospect Dustin Ackley (130), called up Mike Carp (139), and robbed the Dodgers of top prospect Trayvon Robinson (147). Kyle Seager has also helped out since he was called up (105). Justin Smoak hasn't lived up to expectations yet, but he's young too. Along with Pineda and King Felix in their starting rotation, they have a lot of nice young players who are doing well. It will be interesting to follow Seattle next year. If they get Ichiro back to himself (or even back to being a decent player), they could have a really nice team next year.

Alright, so I'm in a fantasy baseball league and we're doing keepers for the first time this year. I can choose up to 3 guys to keep, but for every guy I keep, I lose that many picks from the first three rounds of next year's draft (e.g., I keep 2 guys, I don't get a pick in the 1st or 2nd round). Based on that, who would you keep from this roster (keep in mind, I could opt to keep nobody and have picks in the first three rounds):

At this point, if I pick 3 to keep, I'm thinking definitely Santana and Zimmerman, since they're at the top of pretty thin position groups. Other than that, I'm not sure. I've considered Ackley since 2B isn't very deep, but is he worth it? For pitchers, I've considered Tommy Hanson and Bumgarner, but I feel like there are so many pitchers to choose from, I'm better off keeping position players. What say the rest of you?

is a top tier 2nd baseman. If he'd played as many games as the rest of the top 2nd baseman in MLB, he'd be right near the top in WAR. As it stands now, he's near the top anyways in only 57 games. In addition, his wRC+ of 130 is outstanding. He's a keeper.

caveats apply about BABIP (some people simply hit the ball harder than others, so they don't fall subject to the same BABIP restrictions as others), his is certainly not at an unsustainable level. He's also regarded as a top level prospect. He's also above average at drawing walks, and above average at not striking out. Those are two key factors when looking at a young hitter moving forward. I'd take a chance on keeping him.

I would think the one guy you absolutley keep would be CarGo. He is the definition of fantasy stat stuffer, Santana is a luxury because he can fill a spot at catcher and put up numbers most catchers can't. I'd say keep those two and Zimmerman, just my 2 cents take it for what it's worth im borderline not going to make the playoffs with my team. Thank you Josh Hamilton and Clay Bucholtz for being out extended periods of time!

Can the Tigers reach 90 wins? They need to play .588 ball (20-14) the rest of the way. That seems doable given their soft remaining schedule, and given that they're clearly a better team with Betemit, Fister and Young than they were in the first half of the season.

If our starters pitch the way they have over the past week, I think we could definitely do that. I don't think we can expect Penny to throw 6+ with 1 ER every time, but I also think it's fair to expect Porcello to do better than his last two starts. With a weak schedule, it's our division to lose. Which, yeah...

ESPN is reporting that San Francisco has placed a waiver claim on San Diego's All-Star closer Heath Bell. With Brian Wilson on the DL, could this be a legitimate claim, or do you think the Giants' front office placed the claim assuming that the Padres would respond by pulling Bell off of waivers, making him unavailable to the D-Backs? If it goes down (the Padres have 48 hours to respond) that could be interesting.

on Twitter seem to feel they were just blocking Cleveland. In other waiver news, Heath Bell was claimed by the Giants. Let's see if they actually go after him now, considering they just lost Brian Wilson and are already missing Sergio Romo.